Ezran
by PandaJeter
Summary: Look, i dont know weather T or M should fit, so you decide. Takes place in "Assassin's Creed Brotherhood"


So, this is my first fanfic i've Ever written, Ezran. Now i just made it all into one little short book, there was 14 chapters, which you can see how i broke them up here/ gallery/34462510 / And if you clicked on the link, I'm also on Deviant art, here / / Tada, short and sweet. If you follow me on Deviant art, for those of you with accounts, i will be doing 1 more book/short story, and it will take place in revelations, Constantinople to be exact, but you will not get that until I've completed it all, so it might be a long wait (If you actually like this.) So go ahead, fire away. I have other stories, which can be found on my dev art account, but all my Fanfictions will be here shortly.

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"Get back here thief!" the Borgia guards yelled.

"Cazzo." I said to myself. Then I turned because I knew the guard's were going to catch up to me. I drew my sword, and then the next thing I know is that I am surrounded and fighting Borgia's guards.

I killed one and then I moved to the next one, but then I got grabbed from behind and I couldn't break free.

I then took a look at my surroundings, I had a cliff behind me that I could possibly shove the guard off, but then I might be killed on the spot. I saw three Borgia guards, and then I saw a shadow on a roof top. I didn't spend much time on that seeing as then I was broken from my thoughts as one of the Borgia guards spoke to me, "You are under arrest for stealing from a market."

"No, really, I didn't know from the way you captured me and then restrain me into one of your filthy guard's hands. Why not go into the landfill so no one can smell your filthy ass." I spat on his feet.

"Oh you'll pay for th-" then someone landed on him, and when the person got up, he was dead. I then shoved the Borgia guard off the cliff, and retrieved my sword from the leader and started fighting along this stranger. We killed the other two in short time. I then sheathed my sword and then bowed, seeing I was in his debt now.

The person was dressed in white, with a hood over his face, he had weapons on him, and the first thing I thought when I got a good look at him was, assassino. Then he spoke, "My name is Ezio auditor da Firenze. I am an assassin as you can see. I want you to help me liberate Roma of the Borgia, so will you join me in my cause?" he questioned me. He said these words to me with confidence, like he already knew I was going to join his cause. Which I was going to.

"I will join your cause Ezio, and I will be one of your fellow assassin's. My name is Ezran, and I hope to be one of your best assassin's." I said to him. I said this with confidence; I already knew I was going to be one of his best assassin's. I made a vow that day to be his best assassin and be his loyal friend, but my main goal was to be his partner.

He then said to me, "Well I hope you're going to be a great assassin too Ezran. Now, go to Isola Tiberia, and train." I started to run off, but then stopped when he said, "Oh, and be sure not to get captured by the Borgia again."

"I will Ezio." I said. I ran off toward Isola Tiberia.

I soon made it to Tiber island. I walked in and then got greeted by a sword to the throat, which I immediately grabbed out of the person's hands and then turned it on him. "Well, Ezio didn't say I was to be attacked when I entered for my training to be an assassin." I said this and then the dude froze.

He started to back up and said, "Sorry about that, I didn't know you were one of the new recruits. My name is Machiavelli."

"And my name is Ezran. I was rescued and sent here to train by Ezio." I said to him.

Then Machiavelli said, "Well then you'll need one of these, and will you please put that sword down and give it to me."

I said, "Oh, right sorry." I handed him his sword back. "So this is what he used to kill that guard." I started moving the blade in and out of the case it was in, "Tell me, what is this weapon called?"

"It is a hidden blade, now come to the practice field with me, and I'll show you how to use it." He said. Then we walked to the practice field to practice.

We went to the practice field, and we started to "train", as Ezio called it. This "training" session, was really just running around on their big track. So for 10 minutes, I would sprint around the track, and they would count how many laps I would run. Ezio got 35 laps around, it was a pretty big track mind you, but still, 35 in a minute. Well anyway, that's the record Ezio set, and I was determined to beat it.

Then we started, Machiavelli said, "Ready, set, go!" Then I started off in my sprint, and when I started off, he said in a distant voice, "What speed, I'm sure in-" I didn't hear the rest, because I was away sprinting.

I kept on sprinting, and never faltering in my steps, and never slowed down, or speed up. Just at my fastest speed I could strain myself to do. Then Machiavelli shouted after what seemed a century, "15 seconds, fast as you can!"

Then I shouted back at him, "I've been running as fast as I can without tripping over my steps!" He didn't say anything, but just watched as I ran.

I didn't even count my laps when I went around, I just knew that on the 15 second mark I started to breath heavy. So when I got back to him by jogging, he had a disbelieving face while looking at me. He finally said something, in which that time I looked at him with the same face splattered on mine, "You- you tied Ezio's record of 35. I don't believe it." He paused for a while, and then continued. " Well, with more practice and conditioning, you might actually beat Ezio's record, and maybe be the fastest of the assassin's." He diverted his attention to someone else, and said to them, "Go get Ezio, he would want to hear this."

"Yes sir." Then he ran off without a word more.

"Now we begin the conditioning, but only after you drink this." He gave me some water.

I then said "Grazie." I then drank deeply from the cup he handed me.

I gave it to him after I was finished. "Good, now jog around the track until Ezio comes back to Isola Tiberia." Machiavelli said. I didn't complain to him like many others would, I just got up from where I was sitting and started to jog around the track.

It was about 15 minutes until Ezio arrived at Isola Tiberia. I was just running around the track when he arrived. He then shouted to me, "Alright, come back to us now!" I saw him mumble something to Machiavelli, and then Machiavelli shook his head no. Ezio looked pleased with something, and then mumbled back to him something I couldn't hear.

I arrived back to them in record time. Ezio then said to me, "So I hear you tied my record of 35 laps. This is good, with practice you'll maybe one day beat me. Unless I improve when you do." He then laughed, "Well I would get back to your conditioning if you have any hopes of beating me."

I then said, "Yes Ezio." And without another word I went off, and started my jogging again.

After that I was conditioning for about 30 minutes on the track. Machiavelli called me over, "Drink this, and then you can go to bed."

"Grazie." I said to him.

I finished the water, and then Machiavelli took me to my room, "Buonanotte Ezran." He said to me.

"Buonanotte Machiavelli." I said to him. He then turned and left me.

I then had a chance to look at my surroundings, I had a haystack to sleep on, I had a room to do my duty in. I had a desk with the assassin's emblem on it, and that was about it. I looked back at the haystack, I frowned, "A haystack," I muttered to myself, "oh well, I used to sleep on grass in the middle of a forest with bugs biting me, this won't be any different than it was, except for the bugs."

I laid down on the haystack, it was rather comfy for a haystack. I just went to sleep and not worry about it. The only thing was is that I wasn't tired, and I was curious to see what the rest of Isola Tiberia looked like.

I got up, and then crept out of my room, I looked both ways down the hallway with the assassin's logo on the wall before continuing. I traveled on, to the track. I came to another corner, I looked around it and saw Ezio. It kind of shocked me at first, but then I regained my composure, and watched him turn a corner that went away from the track. I continued, and when I came to the corner that Ezio turned, he wasn't there. At that moment, I saw a corner not that far from the place that he turned, he probably was going to bed.

He did turn left away from the track for my luck, so I looked right, and saw Machiavelli coming my way, Merda, I thought. I went back down the corridor that led back to my room. I planned to turn left and go back to my room and hide, but that didn't happen. Ezio was coming down the hall, I turned around, and thought out my plan to trick Machiavelli, but then he kept going down the hall and not turning to face me. I started to walk, and I turned the corner.

I walked to the track while turning corners with no problem to stand in my way. I walked into the track, and it was magnificent. The moonlight was shining down on it beautifully, and how the concrete looked under that magnificent gaze of the moon, it was like walking into a room full of gold, but not as good. It was beautiful, and when I saw the assassin's symbol in the middle of the track, I gaped in awe. The moonlight was centered directly in the middle of the track, so it seemed like it was glowing. I then got a breeze from the mild winter weather from outside, Well, I thought, I should explore more of this place, there's most likely going to be more meravigilie in this place.

I walked deeper into Isola Tiberia. I came across the armor room, the sword, dagger, and the library. I started to turn back and go to my room, I hit a knife with my boots, and it made a loud noise. "What was that," I heard Machiavelli's voice, "an intruder?"

Cazzo, I thought. I started the other way, and I hit the same knife, and then I heard a sword being drawn. I stopped, then Machiavelli came in cautiously, but I ducked and was behind a rack for armor. He started to come around from my left, so I started going right. He hit the knife I hit, then he went ahead to the sword room. I cautiously went around the corner, and started running to my room, but that was a bad idea, because the only other assassin here was patrolling, and I ran right behind him.

Then as I expected he shouted to the only to other people in this building, and shouted, "INTRUDER, THERE'S AN INTRUDER!" I then started sprinting down the halls splattered with the assassin's symbol on them to my room, I was in the hallway that my room was on, I turned, and opened the door. I shut the door behind me, Then looked up to see Ezio standing right there inn front of me, I uttered, "Merda."

He said to me, "I hear there's an intruder in this building, was that intruder very fast, and non poteva sneak intorno a salvargli la vita?"

I started to stutter, "I- uh- m-I- Merda. How did you catch me?"

He raised an eyebrow before he spoke, "I didn't catch you, I got worried when they said there was an intruder, and came in here, shut the door, and was about to wake you up, and then you walk in, and say that you were curiosare in giro. No, I didn't know you were the one trying to sneak around until mi hai ditto. Cosi posso chiedere cosa diavolo stavi facendo curiosare in giro a quest`ora tarda?" He said it like he was pissed off, which he should be I guess. I got afraid any how.

So I told him straight up, "I was looking around Isola Tiberia, and looking at all the places so I know how to get around. By the way, your track looks lovely during night time." I told him boldy, I didn't care what was going to happen, but then he just laughed at me.

He said joyfully, "Just like me when I was young, always the curious one of my family. Well," His voice suddenly turned serious, "don't ever go snooping around again, because their could be an actual intruder, so no more mezzanotte viaggi. Now go to sleep, and why do you have that haystack out, it's just a decoy for templar's if they break in. Just do this." He walked over to the wall next to the haystack, and pushed a panel that had the assassin's symbol on it, it looked like all the others except that it had a little blue mark on it that you could barley see if you didn't look hard. A little place in the wall right next to me clicked. He walked over and put his hand in the little crack on the wall near the floor. He lifted it up, and then it locked in place, and then he pulled a bed out of the secret compartment in the wall

"Wow, a lot of work to just get a letto, but oh well, at least I have a bed" I said sort of to Ezio, but mostly to myself.

He then said, "Yea, that's what I would think, because we could make you sleep on a haystack if we wanted, but that's probably not going to happen. Buonanotte." Then he started to head out.

I said right before he closed the door, "Buonanotte Ezio." Then he closed it and left me to my dreams of, well nothing.

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. I got into my clothes, and headed out to where ever to get my breakfast. I came across Ezio while wondering aimlessly around the corridors. I said to him, "Buongiorno Ezio."

"Buongiorno Ezran, and I assume you want some food to eat, well go down that corridor, turn left, and go out to the market right there and get some food." He said to me.

I then responded saying, "But I don't have any money to buy it."

Ezio said to me, "Well, since you don't have any money, why not steal it." I looked at him with disbelief splattered on my face, but before I could say anything to him he started laughing, "I'm just kidding Ezran, go down the corridor, turn right and you'll see the armory, just take some fruit from the basket there, and then come to the track after you're done.

I started following his directions, but then I saw fruit just in the hallway, I debated, but then thought, Ezio said get some food out of the basket in the armory, no where else. I turned right, got some food from the basket of fruit in the armory. I ate an apple, a banana, and a pear. Drank some water that was right there, and walked to the track.

I arrived blasted by the intense gaze of the sun, it took my pupils a while to adjust, and when they did I saw Ezio frowning at me. "We need to do something about those clothes. Here, put this outfit, and armor on and then come back to Machiavelli and he will continue your training, and I will be elsewhere."

I said, "Si Ezio." I walked off back to my room. I walked in, changed clothes, and stuck the hidden blade on my arm and walked back to the practice field. Ezio was gone, and Machiavelli was there.

"Well, Ezio says we have a routine with training, it is Monday conditioning, which is what you did yesterday. Tuesday, fighting with basic weaponry. Wednesday, sneaking. Thursday, hidden blade practice. Friday, climbing. Saturday, conditioning. Sunday is the only day you get off, unless there's an urgent matter, or if there's a test day to see if you are able to become an assassin, but that will be not for a very long time. Now we begin our training for today." He finally finished. We started to walk to the middle of the track.

When we arrived at the middle of the track, Machiavelli said to me, "Draw your sword, and let's see if you can match me." Then he drew his sword and took his fighting stance.

I then drew my sword and said, "I think you should be the one thinking to match my blade, because I'm the best."

"Don't get presuntuoso young one." Then he stood there, and then finally said, "Well attack already," He slipped into Italian, "We don't have all day you know."

"I know, bring it!" I said, then we started fighting. I kept on throwing slashes this and that, and mostly on the offensive side of the battle. Then Machiavelli started fighting back with more offense then I could ever manage, and after a while of just managing to block his attacks, something dawned on me. I was getting my culo kicked.

I was still managing to block the ferocious attacks Machiavelli was dishing out, then he faltered in one of his many steps, next I saw an opening in his defenses, and I took it. I started on the offensive side of things, but I was cut off quick. I was attacking furiously, but then missed. I then spun, got a couple of slashes with my sword. Then the next thing I know my leg is on fire, and I am on the ground with a sword at my throat. I was breathing heavy, and to my surprise Machiavelli wasn't. He then said to me without a shadow of a doubt, "Morti."

I then said, "Condannarlo! Curse my bloody mouth!" Then I slipped into a string of curses in Italian, English, and a couple in Spanish to my surprise.

Machiavelli then said, "Enough of your bloody mouth, and I don't know where you learned Spanish, or all of those curse words, and most of them I've never heard of before! Now go sit down and chiudere il di fottere su!"

Well he's roally ticked off, Then I thought, Well no shit he's pissed Ezran! I just went on a string of curse words that are so bad, that I don't even know where I heard them at. No shit he's pissed.

I got up and walked to the bench, and tended to my wound with the gauze there. Did he anticipate this? I questioned myself in my thoughts. Oh well, I tended to my wound, and then sat there waiting.

It was about half an hour before Machiavelli spoke to me, "Now pull your dagger, and let's battle." He drew his dagger, and then got ready to battle while I did the same.

We went on for about ten minutes before he bested me again. We drank some water, and then started to throw obstacles like knifes and such, obviously this was part of basic weaponry. I epically failed at this part, I couldn't hit a target to save my life. After that the sun started setting, I grabbed me a banana for my sores that I was bound to have in the morning. I went into my room, unleashed the hatch, pulled the bed out, and slept.

I woke up from my wonderful room of gold dream, only to be greeted by Machiavelli at the strike of dawn. He said to me, "Get u…. it's w….. s….. day." That was all I could gather from Machiavelli. Then before I knew it I was drenched with freezing cold water as I was tipped over in bed.

I slipped into Italian, "What the hell was that for!"

"That," said Machiavelli, "was for yesterday, and because I thought it would be hilarious!" He then laughed, "I'm sorry but the look on your face!" He then lost his footing, and started rolling on the floor laughing right in front of my eyes.

I said to myself, Merda, I must be dreaming! But I soon found out I wasn't.

Machiavelli got up from the floor trying to stifle his laughter and then spoke, "Ok get up, time to go train. It's Wednesday, and you know what that means right?"

I said tiredly, "No I don't know what it mea-" I was cut off by Machiavelli.

"Drop and me fifty! Right now no buts!" Machiavelli said. I fumed at him. Why the hell am I doing this! Fuck this. I thought. And then I got down and started my push-ups.

I started to count in my head, One, two, three, I kept counting while I was doing push-ups on my red colored carpet.

When I reached fifty push-ups Machiavelli asked me, "Now do you know what today is, I explained it to you right?"

"Yea you did, but I don't know what today is." I said to him, while I was racking information out of my brains.

"Fifty crunches." He said. I started doing crunches and counting them.

A while went by, and by forty-one crunches, it dawned on me, Today is sneaking day! Once I got to fifty, I stood and said, "Today is sneaking day."

Machiavelli said exasperated, "Finally," He slipped into Italian, "it's about time." He tossed me an apple, "That's it, you're just going to sit there like a dead fish, venire su!"

"I know I know." I said to him. I then struggled to my feet because of my sores, and all those push-ups and crunches. I looked up, and he wasn't there. I looked all around and didn't see him, I thought to myself, where did he go?" I took a step, got hit in the head so hard that I almost got knocked out, but not quite.

I then heard Machiavelli tell me, "Come on." He turned heel and jogged off, and I quickly caught up to him.

We jogged around twisting corners until we came to the track. When we arrived I saw two more assassin's in front of me. Then Machiavelli said to me, "This is Amina and Leandro, they're new assassin's that will be training along with you for your training time. Now, Amina and Leandro go patrol, we're going to see if Ezran can put these markings," He held some little green balls to me, I took them, and he continued, "in one of these in each little cups. Your job is to try and catch him, spread out across the building, oh and whoever loses has to do a plank and hold it until I say stop. Iniziare!"

Amina and Leandro left to try to catch me. Machiavelli said, "These cups are not in bedrooms, but in places such as the kitchen, armory, and such. Return here when your done, and don't drop them, you have exactly the amount of balls as cups, ok? Iniziare!"

I started to head out, but then I spotted a cup in the corner of the track, on an assassin symbol covered table. I walked over and put a marble in the cup, and it fit perfectly. I moved on sneaking around, I came to the armory next, and saw Amina walking around, then she went to the weapon room, I looked all around before I continued. I looked around each corner before I entered, and put my marble in the cup. I peeked into the sword room, and Amina was coming right at me. I quickly turned, and hid behind the armor rack. She walked by, and stopped when she saw a marble in the cup, and started to look around.

She went back into the weapon room, and I followed her not too closely, and not too far. The cup was right there, I stuck the marble in the socket, and turned to the exit. I took a step, and then got tackled. Amina pulled out some rope, tied my hands behind my back, pulled out a dagger, put it to my throat, and escorted me back to the track.

Then I asked her, "Il pugnale era realmente necessario?"

She said in a harsh voice, "Yes it was. because I deal with things as in, you're trying to steal from me, and I'm supposed to catch you. You may think this is just play time, and think, "Oh it's just a training session." But some people take things seriously, so why don't you start taking things seriously before I actually cut your throat, so chiudere il di fottere su."

I was about to say something, but then held my tounge. For some reason, though I didn't know why, I was starting to like Amina.

We arrived at the track, and Machiavelli started to laugh at me, "You mean to tell me that the only thing you're good at is running." He laughed again, got composed, and said to Amina, "Good work Amina, but was the dagger necessary?"

Amina said, "Assolutamente."

There was an awkward pause. She still held the dagger at my throat, which was making me uncomfortable. Machiavelli must have sensed my unease because he said to Amina, "You can put the dagger down, and release him." Before I could blink the dagger was removed and I was dropped to the ground. Then everyone jumped when Leandro said hi to us. Machiavelli said, "Where in the world did you come from?"

Leandro said, "I've been standing here for awhile."

"Yes, but I didn't here or see you come in here. Now," Machiavelli said to me, "Ezran gets to do a plank, Iniziare."

I started to do a plank, and it was not hard. Machiavelli left to go to the market to refill our food, and told Amina that she was in charge, and not to let me go down from my plank. I was just immovable. Then about ten minutes later, I was struggling to keep myself straight. I then thought of Amina, and started to focus on her. Then I went blind with pain. Then for what seemed like a millennia, Machiavelli said, "Stop, stop, before your eyes pop out of their sockets." Then to my surprise I heard Amina laugh, and I thought, She has a wonderful laugh.

After that, Machiavelli made us do some stretches, and when we did a stomach stretch, I groaned in pain. Amina laughed at me, but Leandro remained silent. Then Machiavelli told us to eat and then sleep.

We all decided to eat together. Amina said to me while she was munching on her apple, "That was hilarious." She mimicked my groan, and continued, "Your face was priceless when we did that stretch." Even Leandro laughed at me.

I said to them, "Hey, you try a thirteen minute long plank, and then you can decide to make fun of me or not." I still joined in the laugh though.

Leandro said, "It must have been hard though, I still can't believe you held on that long."

"I don't know either, I picked an image, focused on that, and then went blind with pain." I said.

Amina inquired, "Well what did you focus on?"

I hesitated, I wasn't about to tell her I focused on her, but then common sense won out, "I focused on my mom the day before she was slaughtered by the Borgia. She was so happy that day." A single tear dropped from my cheek as I remembered her.

Amina asked with sadness, "So what happened?"

There was a long pause before I spoke, "I was ten years of age when my mom died. I went to play with my friend, Dante, and I was gone for two hours." My voice started to choke as I choked back my tears, "When I came back I saw my mom dead on the ground, and on the wall next to her, was written in her blood, 'long live the Borgia' and then I went back to Dante, and his whole family, and himself was slaughtered. The same message written on the wall behind him, and from that day forward I vowed to take all the Borgia's lives. I haven't finished my vow, but I will finish, and this start is going to help me with my goal. I've kept this from everyone except for you two."

There was a dreadful pause before Amina said, "I'm so sorry."

I said, "Don't worry, I'll be fine Amina."

She looked at me for awhile with a worried look, and I looked back at her. We held our gazes for a minute or so when Leandro said, "We have been up long enough, let us go to bed." Amina and I nodded, we said our good nights and departed to our quarters.

I put my armor, and outfit up. Put on my trousers, and a comfortable shirt on. Pushed the button, raised the door, pulled out the bed and laid down on it. I slowly drifted into sleep while thinking of Amina.

The world lit up, and I was walking through halls injured somehow. I walked into a room, and there Amina was standing there with her eyes focused on me, her eyes were sharp and oval faced shaped. She had broad shoulder, a sharp chin, and beautiful green eyes. Her face was smooth, but yet, on that face there were scars of a battle worn warrior. She was slightly muscular, not that big, not too skinny or fat. Her hands had one or two calluses on them. She wore trousers, and a long sleeve shirt.

She was looking at me, and when she reached out, a Borgia guard walked into my line of vision, and drew his sword, and struck her down without a second thought. He turned, and thrust his sword at me.

I woke up with a gasp. Sweat rolled down my neck and I was breathing hard and fast. I calmed myself down, inhale, exhale, I thought. I calmed myself down in about five or ten minutes. I looked outside and it was pitch black. I laid back down on my bed, and slowly drifted back to sleep.

I was with Dante playing a game. I left soon after word, and I came back home, and opened the door. My mom was dead, she didn't have a face, or a head. Her head was chopped off, and her face was mauled with a ax sticking out of her head. Long live the Borgia was written on it,

I turned heel and ran back to Dante's house. His family was slaughtered to. They were stacked in a neat pile upward, with a lance cutting through where their hearts were, and it stuck through their bodies, like a human cabob. T-

"Ezran! Ezran! Wake up!" Machiavelli said. I started, and then he put a hand on my chest and said, "Calmarsi Ezran. Deep breaths." Then he inquired, "What happened?"

"Two nightmares in a roll, that's what." I answered, "And before you ask, I don't want to talk about them."

He said, "Ok, well it's Thursday, and you know what that means, right?"

I racked my brains for the information, and then said, "It's hidden blade practice."

"Correggere, come on." He said, and gave me an apple, and ran off. I caught up to him in no time flat.

We went through the normal twists and turns before we made it to the track. When got to the track, I was surprised to see just Leandro at the track. "Where's Amina?" I asked Machiavelli.

"She's in bed, sick to be exact. She will get better soon, the medicine should take effect, but she will be here tomorrow." He then walked over and brought out some dummies, with holes in them. They had Xs on their faces and they were clad in Borgia colors. Machiavelli said to us, "These dummies will be what we will be practicing on today. You will start from different positions, and try to execute various techniques. You will assassinate from the front, behind, air, and assassinating on a ledge. Since there are two of you today, we will split you into sides. Ezran you will start to your left, with the ledge, and the behind assassinations. Leandro will start on the right with the front and air assassinations. You two can begin, now go!" He finished his long explanation, and the we got to work.

I started on the one from behind. I walked up to it and then Machiavelli hit me in the head, and I said, "What the fuck was that for!"

He said, "You're supposed to sneak up on him, why do you think Ezio assigned sneaking yesterday, use your brain, well if you have one." Then he walked away.

I started to go after him, but said to myself, 'Better not let my anger get the better of me again.' I shuddered when I remembered Tuesday when Machiavelli got pissed.

I started to 'sneak' up to the dummy, and then I plunged the blade through it, while holding his nose and mouth like I would if I was doing a real one. I started to practice on that one for awhile. Then I moved to the next one.

The ledge was the hardest of them all. For the first part, I was just Maneuvering on that ledge for awhile. When I got it down, I tried to hold myself on with one hand, and then once I could do that, I started. I struggled for a bit, but then I got the hang of it and started practicing on it, and then I switched in between the ledge and behind. Machiavelli told us to switch after awhile, and I started the front assassination technique first. In was the same though, but when I got to the air, it was all over.

I would jump down, miss, and then roll with the pain in my shoulder. After awhile I got it down, but I only had a little while left before we had to stop, drink some water, and go to lunch.

Leandro and I walked to the kitchen where we got some fruit, while we munched, I was surprised to here Leandro first, "That air one was hard, like really hard."

I said, "Tell me about it, I was rolling on the floor in pain when I missed. Imagine when he starts to have moving targets, and we jump, now that's what you call hard."

"The ledge was challenging, but the air one, by far, was the most difficult."

"Yeah, I agree with you on that." After that none of us said a word, and then we arrived back on the track.

We started to fight with the hidden blades, Machiavelli explained the rules and we started fighting each other with our hidden blades. I won most of the fights, but now and then I tripped over my steps, or I just failed miserably, and he beat me.

In the end we went back to our rooms after a silent dinner, and Machiavelli said that Amina would be back tomorrow. On the inside it made me so glad I was about to burst, but I didn't show it on the outside.

I went through the normal, bathing, changing, pulling the bed out, and going to sleep. It was a while though before I could fall into the midnight sea.

Machiavelli waked me up as usual. I had a dreamless night last night. Then he asked the almighty question, but I was ready, "You know what today is?"

"Yes, it's climbing day."

"Ah, you've figured out your days Ezran, good boy." He tossed me an apple, and dashed off.

I caught up with him as usual, and we went through the normal hallways with the assassin's symbol on them.

We arrived at the track, I was relieved to see Amina there, and I said, "Nice to see you back Amina," and I did not say another word more. Leandro gave me a suspicious look, but did not say anything, and stayed silent.

Machiavelli rather gave me that look to, but luckily, Amina did not notice.

"Well," Machiavelli paused, and looked at me once more then went on, "today is climbing day, as you should know. We will race to the top of Isola Tiberia, from the outside. You do not have to worry about Borgia guards because there is none of them on this island. You will climb to the top, and back down. This is a race mind you, and I expect the best of all three of you." He looked at all of us, but his gaze paused on me for a split second longer than Leandro and Amina. Then he said, "Well you can follow me outside, and Ezran."

"Yes." I said.

"Don't do a leap of faith, climb down for training purposes."

"I don'"

"You d-, well that's a different concept." We walked toward the door that leads outside.

When we reached the sunlight again, it blinded me at first, but then my pupils adjusted. It was a large building, and painted red. The peculiar thing about it was that I did not see the assassin symbol anywhere on the building, but that was probably for Borgia guards. He placed us each at a different spot around the building.

Then I heard Machiavelli say begin, and I started climbing to the top. I grasped the edges of window seals, and grooves in the wall. I kept climbing, and then I got to the top, Leandro was almost down, and Amina just departed. I then started to move faster wanting to impress Amina, and when I got to the ground, I found out that I got beat, and that Leandro climbed faster than Amina and I put together.

Machiavelli congratulated Leandro, and said nice try to Amina and I. We kept on climbing throughout the morning with brief brakes in between. At lunch we left, and I exp- Leandro and I explained what we did yesterday, and we told her hidden blade practice, with the drills that we did. We eventually got back out to go again.

The time past quickly, and I was worn out when Machiavelli said that this was the last climb today, and to give it our all.

I started climbing, vaguely aware of my surroundings. I kept climbing, but I finally reached the top. I started climbing down, and I felt with my foot where a groove was supposed to be, but was not there. Then I fell, I screamed, but then I hit the ground, and passed to the midnight sea.

I woke up and tried to get up, but a hand on my bare chest pushed me back down. My vision cleared up, then I saw Amina standing over me, and I smiled the best I could. She looked down at me and smiled back. She then called for Machiavelli, and told him I was awake. I wanted to look at that face over me all day, but before I could move one of my hands to stroke her face, Machiavelli took her place I frowned. I did not even remember what happened, and the Machiavelli said I fell from the wall. I cringed on the inside, and thought of what Amina thought of me now.

He eventually left, and left Amina and I alone, but alas, it would not last. Leandro came in and he started talking. I caught bits and pieces of it, but I stopped listening. My only thought was Amina right now. Leandro left after awhile, and then it was Amina and I again.

She must have noticed I was looking at her, and she looked at me. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she did not. We held our gazes for a while, and she said, "You have beautiful eyelashes." That was the least I expected, but it would do.

"Thank you." I said in a hoarse voice, "You have wonderful green eyes." Then I stopped right there, I did not want to jump too far ahead.

She then said, "Thank you." We looked at each other for a while, but sleep was overcoming me, and before I fell unconscious again, I caressed Amina's face, and then fell back into the midnight sea.

: Amina POV:

His gentle touch on my face made me blush so much, that I thought my whole body was red. Luckily, he went unconscious before he noticed me blush. It was not like me to blush, but I did not know why he affected me so deeply.

I wanted to leave, but I wanted to stay. I have to stay anyway, because that is what I am supposed to do. Machiavelli put me at this post, and when I asked him why he said, 'no reason'.

My blush was starting to go down some, and then quickly stopped when Leandro walked in.

"Is he a sleep, or unconscious?" Leandro asked.

"Sleeping." I said.

"So what did you two talk about?"

"Nothing."

"It looked more than nothing from where I stood looking at you two."

Then my blush rose to my face again. I managed to stammer out, "Y-y- You saw that?!"

He said, "No, all I saw is that Ezran moved his arm, but I couldn't see what happened, but obviously it was more than nothing."

"Well," I said, "I told him that he has beautiful eyelashes, and he told me I had beautiful eyes. Then he," I hesitated, "he caressed my face right before he went unconscious."

"Do you like him, in the boyfriend sense?" Leandro questioned.

I blushed even more, and I said, "Maybe."

"That blush did not look like a maybe." He said, "But, he acts like he likes you, you just have to wait until he gets man enough to tell you."

"How can I do that, he probably doesn't even like me that way, just as a friend." I said, "I'm just going to get turned down if I ask him anyway."

Leandro protested, "Don't be absurd Amina, he likes you."

I countered, "But what if he doesn't?"

"Then I'll be thoroughly surprised. I think he does, but you never know." He said, and then he turned and left.

I mulled over this advice. I did not think that Ezran liked me, but I could be wrong. He was hansom, on the inside and out. I thought to myself, he always has a way to charm me, and I feel good around him, but I cannot jump the gun on this though.

I hoped he would be all right; he fell for quite a bit. He hit the ground, and I thought he was dead, and good thing he was not. The way he welcomed me back, I fought that blush with all my might, and looks as if I fought it well.

I looked up at the clock again, and it was about an hour since Leandro came in and talked. It was about ten at night, so I decided to sleep on the haystack in Ezran's room. I was supposed to keep an eye on him after all. I walked over, I laid down on it, and I was out before I hit the haystack.

I woke up, and Ezran was still snoring away. It was eight in the morning. I walked over to Ezran, and sat down in the chair. It made a squeak noise, and Ezran stirred from his sleep. He woke up, and said to me, "Good morning sunshine." Then I looked away, and blushed.

When I looked back I said, "Good morning hansom." This time he looked away.

He said, "So how are you today beautiful?"

I said, "I'm doing fine, and you snore, did you know that?"

He chuckled, "Yes I do, considering as you just told me."

"Wow. So, how are you feeling tod-"

I got cut off, by Leandro walking in and saying, "Hey Amina, don't hog Ezran to yourself!

This time I blushed really hard, and I heard Ezran chuckle, "I'm not hogging him!" I protested.

Ezran said, "Looks like it to me." My blush intensified.

Leandro said, "We're just kidding Amina." But my blush was firmly planted on my face.

I said, "You better be. Well, you charged in here for a reason."

Leandro said, "Yes of course, I wanted to see Ezran."

Then those two boys started talking about meaningless things, so I left to go get some fruit.

He went unconscious for about 19 hours, and 21 minutes. I counted, but I did not know why at the time. Now I do. I finished my breakfast, and they were still talking.

They finally stopped when Leandro got hungry and left. Then I tossed Ezran an apple.

He said, "Grazie."

"So how are you feeling?" I asked.

He took a bite, and said, "Better, with your beautiful face around." I blushed, but then he kept going, "It seems like your smile mends everyone."

I managed to say, "Thank you very much Ezran, your very sweet, but I meant your bruises."

"Oh," He said, "Those are fine, I'll be up in a while."

We talked for a little while longer, and then he was about to sleep again. I took advantage of this, and said, "Good night." Then I kissed Ezran on the cheek. Even though I blushed, he did too, but then he fell to sleep.

I then waited around, and I eventually fell a sleep on the chair.

: Ezran POV:

I woke up the next morning, but I did not see the warm presence of Amina. I sat up, and then Machiavelli bursts into my room and says, "Ezran, get your things, we're under attack! The Borgia got enough guts to attack us, no time for questions, let's move!" He ran out as quickly as he came.

I quickly got up, but my right leg did not agree with that, I fell face first into the floor. I got up slowly this time; my right leg woke up just in time, because a Borgia guard stormed my room. I took his weapon out of his hands, and killed him with it.

I dropped the weapon, pulled on my armor, got my weapons, and I headed out. I ran through the halls to where the track was, and that was where the heart of the battle was. I ran up to a Borgia guard and assassinated him, and then the next one. I went to pull out my sword, but I heard Machiavelli telling us to run away.

Then I jumped over a Borgia guard, assassinating him in the process, and ran. I almost got to a hall, but then a Borgia guard tackled me, then I kicked him, and stuck my blade through his skull, blood splattered on me.

I got to the hallway, now I was running. I came across two Borgia attackers. I jumped over them, kicking one in his nose, breaking it from the crack I heard, and assassinated the other.

I ran through the halls of Isola Tiberia, Jumping over guards, dodging knifes and crossbows, and not stopping until I reached outside.

When I reached the outside, I saw Amelia and Leandro stealing horses, and they rode off. I looked around at the merchants and civilians, not a horse in site.

There was no time to wait around here; I tore off towards my friends. I ran on pure adrenalin through the landscape after I left the island, now I was running through the wilderness of Roma, passing people on the way.

I saw my friends' ways ahead, but they stopped in their flight. I continued my speed until I reached them. I was running for about 15 minutes before I arrived. "H-hey." I said, trying to get oxygen into my system.

They spoke in a jumble I could not understand through my great heaves. They looked at me expecting an answer, so I said, "I'm okay, and I did run all the way here."

Amina said, "Good, but that's not what we asked, have you seen Machiavelli?"

I looked past them, and saw Machiavelli on a horse, with a sword through his shoulder. "Yeah, he's right behind you, with a sword through his shoulder."

Amina mumbled something, and then Leandro said, "Wise ass."

Machiavelli reached us on his horse and said through gritted teeth, "Are you all, all right?"

We all said we were, but then I asked, "Are you alright Machiavelli?"

"I'll be fine, just remove the sword Leandro." He said, and then Leandro walked over, pulled the sword out of his shoulder, and wrapped some of his shirt around the wound.

"There, all done Machiavelli." Leandro said, as he backed up from him.

"Now, let's go meet Ezio." Machiavelli said, "Also, we need to get a horse for Ezran, but until we can, Ezran, your running."

I said, "Alright." Then we all followed Machiavelli. We past the landscape with ease, and then found a horse. I high jacked it, and then we rode off.

We reached the fort where Ezio was supposed to be at, it was a really tall brick fort with mercenaries surrounding it. Ezio opened the door, and then Machiavelli explained what happened while we went to eat.

Amina was the first to speak, "What do you think is going to happen?" I did not catch whom it was directed to, but Leandro spoke up.

"Probably the Borgia figured out that there was so few of us there at the time, and then they attacked, knowing they had the advantage on us, and at night too."

"So that explains it, do you think we're going to take back Isola Tiberia?" Amina asked, and it was directed towards me this time.

I said, "Most likely, Ezio has important stuff there, like the scrolls that lead to the armor chamber thing."

Leandro said to me, "How do you know about those, you were knocked out when Machiavelli told us about them."

"I snooped around at night, and over heard Ezio, and Machiavelli talking about it." I explained.

Amina said this time, "You snooped, didn't Ezio say not to do that anymore?"

"Well yeah, but I find out about a lot of stuff that they only speak about at night because they don't want us to find out about it." I explained.

Leandro asked, "Well what else have you found out?"

I said, "I found out that Ezio is trying to get the apple of Eden back into assassin hands, and that the French are allying with the pope."

"That's terrible," says Amina, "that means that we have Roma, and the French on are tails."

Leandro says, "The apple is real? How could that possibly happen, and the Borgia has it too? This can't get any worse."

"I think it can if the apple remains in Borgia hands." I say to them.

"Well, we can't do anything until we finish our training and become assassins." Amina says.

"Yeah I know, let's wait until they're done in there." I said, and then we waited in silence.

Then Machiavelli came in with a grave face and said, "The Borgia have taken siege on Isola Tiberia."

Leandro and Amina gave a chorus of, "No! That's impossible."

Then I asked after that, "Are we going to take Isola Tiberia back?"

"Yes, we are going to take back the island, we have important things there that can't fall into Borgia hands. We are going to be leaving in the morning, so I suggest that we get some rest." Machiavelli said, and then he turned and walked away.

"Wait!" I shouted, then Machiavelli backtracked and I asked, "What happened to the other two assassins, and where do we go to sleep?"

Machiavelli said, "They died during the battle. Where you sleep, go down the hall, then turn left, and there will be two doors, the left one has two beds, and the other has one. Amina will take the room with one bed, and you and Leandro will take the one with two beds." Then at that, he went off down the hallway.

Leandro, Amina and I went the way Machiavelli told us to go. There was not that much decorations in the hall, just the occasional lamp, desk, and bowls of food. Anyone could tell that this place was not equipped well. That could be to the many people that they had to hire to guard this place, or that there are many people here so there is not a lot of food. Then again, it could be both.

Leandro said while we were walking, "You know, I feel sorry for those assassins, but I'm glad that we aren't the ones dead."

I said, "Yeah, I would prefer them to be alive too, we could use their help during the battle, but then again, we have Ezio with us, and he's the best assassin that I know of."

Amina also agreed, "I agree with Ezran on this one, we could use them."

Leandro stayed silent, and then I said to Amina as soon as we reached our rooms, "Good night." Then I opened the door to the room, I could also here Leandro say it too, and then I heard Amina say night to us both.

I walked into the room, and I smelled the stench of rotten bananas. "Ugh, that smells horrible." I said to Leandro. I walked over to the bananas, and chucked them out of the window, and I hit a Borgia guard.

Then Leandro and I laughed so hard that tears were rolling down our faces because the Borgia guard started to shout, "Who threw these rotten bananas at me!" Then he started to go around people asking those people questions, and then one man totally punched the Borgia guard in the face. I could here two cracks from where I was standing laughing; he probably broke his jaw and his nose. The Borgia guard was knocked out from the blow, and then the man ran with the rest of the civilians. By this time, Leandro and I were rolling on the floor, trying to see the rest of it. Then Amina walked in and said to us, "Shut up, I'm trying to sleep!" Then she left, and that caused Leandro and me to laugh even harder. I do not know what time it was when we finally stopped cracking up, though it was dark by the time we stopped.

"Ok, I think that was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life." I said to Leandro.

Leandro said back to me, still chuckling, "Yep, the funniest thing in my life. Ok, we should get some sleep."

"Yeah, well good night Leandro." I said.

"'Night Ezran." Leandro said. Then we both went to turn in for the night.

We both had red bed sheets, blankets, and pillows. There were two dressers that were red of course, one bathroom, and a little table that was red. I did not know what the red table was used for though. The carpet was red like the beds, and the walls and ceilings were red too. "This is a really red room." I thought to myself. I looked at the candles, and I almost laughed again. The candles and candleholders were all red. Now that I think of it, this whole room is red, even the toilet, sink, and bathtub was red.

I then snuggled up in my bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Machiavelli woke Leandro and I up, and he said something, but his words were lost to me as I tried to turn my ears on. When they were I asked Leandro, "What did he say?"

"He said that we were leaving in thirty minutes to go take Isola Tiberia back, and to eat and get our stuff on." Leandro answered.

I nodded my head, and got up to get my armor on. By the time Leandro and I ate, put our armor on, and reached the front door, everyone was waiting on us. "It's about time!" Amina scolded us, "You all are five minutes late!"

"It's only five minutes." I said back to Amina.

She said then, "So, in that five minutes anyone could've died, and that means the Borgia has five minutes to get their defenses ready!"

I was about to counter when Leandro said, "Calm down both of you, while you two are bickering, the Borgia has more time to work with. Now let's go."

I was in the bad mood that whole ride over to the island. Machiavelli said on the ride over that we are going to just ride in and take the enemy head on, and that is exactly what we did.

We jumped off out horses, and ran towards the Island, and of course, Ezio and I reached it at the same time while we left the others in the dust. There was two Borgia guards at the entrance, Ezio and I both reached them at the same time. We both ran past them, thrusting our hidden blades through their throats without missing a step.

We ran in, and every Borgia guard we past, we killed them as we did the first two. We reached the track, and we were met with a hundred or so guards. Looks like everyone gathered here for the blood party because we heard the shouts of intruders. The others reached us a little while later; I was too busy fighting to notice. Besides, the only reason I noticed was that Amina saved me from a blow from behind. I made a mental note to thank her, but as it turned out, we were fighting back to back after that. The battle lasted forever, my arm felt like lead by the time the battle ended. Then I saw a Borgia guard coming at Amina from behind, and I jumped into action, and stabbed him in the face with my hidden blade.

"Thanks." Amina said out of breath.

I was about to thank her for saving me too, but then she pulled me in for a hug. It shocked me at first, and then I hugged her back. We broke apart, and then I said, "Thank you for saving me too, we make a great team."

"That we do." She said to me with joy in her beautiful green eyes.

Then Ezio shouted to us all from the roof, though I'm not sure why he was up there, probably to kill the archers, considering how his shoulder was bleeding, and that he held an arrow in the air, "Good job everyone! We have taken back Isola Tiberia!"

We all cheered back at him in triumph. Then him and Machiavelli left to go take care of Ezio's wounds, and told us to clean up.

It took a week to mop up all the blood, trash the bodies, and arrange all of our things as they were, and surprisingly, nothing was stolen. They also didn't find anything of importance there either, Ezio hid it well, but given more time, the Borgia would've.

I was feeling bad, because tomorrow, we go back to boring old training. I crashed in bed that night, exhausted from all the work around Isola Tiberia.

After the battle and clean-up, it was back to old training again, while Ezio did whatever he does. The weeks passed by like a blur, not fast, but no, really, really slow. We did the old routine of the week, over and over and over, and I was getting tired of it. Then after about 6 months, Machiavelli said that we were ready for a mission, and I breathed a sigh of relief, I was finally about to go on a mission! Leandro and Amina had bright faces too. We all are so excited; I think we all would burst.

Machiavelli said, "You all will be going to Constantinople, to poison a Templar priest. The boat is waiting on you all outside, but, a word of advice. You will need a distraction so one of you can get in, then you will have to be sneaky, because all the guards won't just come running, so there will have to be another distraction, and then, you will have to get to the priest's cup, insert the poison, and get out undetected.

"I trust you all will be smart, use your brains for once," He paused and looked at me. Like I don't use my brain, I use it more than anyone else, ok, well maybe not. "and be careful. Now go!"

We arrived at the docks after a while, and got on the boat. We didn't say much on the trip over there, but the scenery was beautiful. The water was glistening in the sunlight, the trees were glowing as we passed them, and then the one sunset we saw before we arrived was magnificent. The colors were: orange, yellow, pink, purple, and red. We slept before we arrived at the docks of Constantinople; the captain was kind enough to wake us before he left. I was in the lead when we left the boat, and I lead us to our destination, the fort that the priest was in.

We were a good distance away before Amina huddled us up, and said, "This is what we are going to do; Ezran is going to take the first distraction, because you can't sneak to save your life. Then Leandro and I are going to head in the fort, and then, Leandro, you are going to take the second distraction, and then I will sneak into the dining room, poison the drink, and then we'll get out of here. Everyone got it?"

Leandro and I nodded our heads to her, and then they made preparations, apparently, they thought about the plan, while I prepped for the battle. I told them I was going to scout the place out, and headed toward the fort. It was made of stone, with the Templar emblem splattered disgustingly on the walls. Archers lined the walls all the way around, looking for anyone daring enough to come and try to pose a threat. I turned my attention downward, and saw the guards going to and fro, already prepped and ready to battle. There were entrances on the north, south, and east sides with guards crawling in them. On the west side, to my surprise, there wasn't an entrance or a single guard in sight. I came back to camp and told my observations to them, and then we started our plan.

I went around to the road while Leandro and Amina went through the woods. I thought out how I was going to do this, there was too many guards, and the archers would be a nightmare, but I would have to be able to fend off the guards while getting shot.

'I need to find a way to get the archers off the roofs, kill them or something.' I thought to myself. I could use my crossbow to shoot them off the roof tops, but that would backfire considering my horrible aim. If I climb to the top of the fort without being detected, I could kill the archers using my hidden blade. They were all spread out anyway; I could get from one to the next and kill them in no time. I went with that option since it was the most likely to succeed. I crossed the main road into the woods without detection, and then I found that the left side had no archers protecting it either. I ran to the west wall and climbed up the stone wall, taking what handholds I could find.

I reached the top, and to my surprise, about 30 of the archers were dummies, and the other 10 to 20 were real. I crawled over the edge of the wall, and got in a haystack. I saw a Borgia archer come towards my way, and when he was in reach, I jumped out, plunged my hidden blade into his neck while covering his mouth, and pulled him into the haystack. There I sat until my next victim came, and that wait wasn't long because the Borgia archers seemed to go in a circle. So I could pick them off one by one.

After a while of doing the same thing, I killed the last archer on the roof top, and I think I just helped Leandro some with his archers. I looked over the west edge again to make sure there were no guards there, there wasn't. I climbed back to the ground, and ran back to the woods.

I walked in the greenery until I came to the main road which I took up to the fort. I walked along to the fort, and when I was at the gate, the Borgia guard asked me in a deep commanding tone, "Do you have an appointment with the priest?"

I replied, "No, but you have an appointment with death." Then I slid my hidden blade out and plunged it into his scalp before he could utter a word more, and then the battle started.

: Amina POV:

I saw Ezran go up to the rooftops and kill the archers, and then told Leandro to thank him after this. The gates opened, and then a sea of red flushed out of them, and that's when I started to worry about Ezran's safety, but my worries ceased when I saw how well he was holding up against them.

Leandro and I snuck past the waging battle that was going on, and entered the fort. Inside there were beautiful works of art, murals, sculptures, and others among this. We had no troubles as we tread lightly through the almost silent fort; the only thing that was heard was the battle outside.

We came to the spot where there should be a door leading to the priest's quarters. We saw about 50 guards guarding the priest's quarters, and then I said to Leandro, "This is where we part, you distract them until you hear me do a bird call. The plan is, I get in poison the drink, do a bird call for you and Ezran, and leave Constantinople." With that he climbed up a wall, jumped over the ledge on the other side of me, and then the battle started.

I snuck past the battle to the priest's quarters, and entered the door. I went through twists and turns in the hallway, and finally found the dining room. I entered it, but I should've been more careful because a Borgia guard was looking me dead in the eye.

: Ezran POV:

I wasn't thinking, only reacting to the sound and movements of the Borgia troops. I swung my hidden blade around, blocking swords; daggers, maces, and other things that I wasn't really keeping track of. There was a pool of blood at my feet, but none of it was mine. It was all the Borgia's blood on the ground, I slipped a couple of times on the blood, but it never through me off because it seems like the Borgia slipped whenever I did.

I continued to hear the clash of swords and daggers, CLANG, CLASH, and TING! Over and over again, and I thought my ears would bleed because of all the sound that was howling around me. One after the other I killed the Borgia, my arm was holding up fine against them, not tiring nearly as fast when I was at Isola Tiberia.

I was in the heat of battle when I saw an axe come down, then I heard the sound that I never wanted to hear, my hidden blade breaking. The axe broke neatly through it, and that's when I hoped Amina and Leandro were almost done, because I wouldn't last long with my sword.

: Leandro's POV:

After I jumped off the ledge and assassinated the one Borgia guard away from the pack, all attention and heads turned my way. I pulled out my sword, and then fluxed the one Borgia guard that was foolish enough to run towards me. Then the real battle started for me.

I outmatched them, turning, twisting, and breaking bones with my bare hands before gutting them like pigs. I caught a glimpse of a Borgia guard just looking at my footwork, and since his head was down, it was easy for me to put a sword through it.

CLASH, TING, BANG, and CRASH was all I heard through the battle, and I'm pretty sure my arm was moving a mile a minute. As I moved around killing my attackers, I wondered where they kept coming from, because the stench of the bodies I could tell was more than 50. They probably had some patrols come to battle too.

I started to notice after a while that there numbers were thinning on them, and that's when my smile faded, because there was a hulking figure standing in front of me with a battle axe in his hands. The other little groups of guards moved away to give us space, and I knew this wasn't going to end pretty. 'Come on Amina, hurry up or you'll have me killed.' I thought.

: Amina POV:

I thought he was going to call for more guards, but the opposite happened, I slugged me in the face, knocking me a few feet backwards and letting me land on my butt uncomfortably. He drew his sword out to battle me, so I pulled out my own, and then we were circling each other. After a while, he made the first move in our duel.

He moved fluently battling me, and then something shocked me as he knocked me to my butt for the third time in our duel. 'He's as good, or even better than me.' I thought to myself as we dueled.

Eventually after tiring minutes, I killed him. Then I pulled out the vile of poison, poisoned the drink, hid the body, and mopped up the blood. I saw the priest come in with no guards, and the first thing he did was to drink his drink, and I watched him take a sip, he was dead.

I retreated through the hallways that I used before, did a bird call for Leandro and Ezran, and then we were on our way with the money, and our lives back to the ship.

The ride back across the Mediterranean was long like the last one, we had a beautiful sunset filled with bright colors, and I sighed to myself. No one was hurt, injured I any way, and it was nice to relax on a boat trip back from a hard day.

I still thought back to the fatal sound, SCREE! The sound of that axe cutting through my hidden blade like it was paper. I wonder what they were going to do, fix my hidden blade, give me a new one, or just say, 'Sorry Ezran, you're screwed.' That would just suck, and even just thinking about it my stomach gets upset. If I lose my hidden blade I wouldn't be able to do anything, I guess I should start to practice more with my mace and dagger. I looked at my arsenal; I had a razor sharp dagger, a mace since I just couldn't handle a sword to save my life, luckily I could handle a mace, throwing knifes that I never touch because of my horrible aim, a crossbow that I don't touch because of my aim, and a hidden gun that I also don't use. I sighed to myself, I had all of this stuff on me, but I could only use three of my weapons including my hidden blade. I tried to get Machiavelli to not let me have all of these weapons that I don't use, but he wouldn't budge saying that one day in my life they would save my life, but I don't believe it.

I decided to get some shut eye for the rest of the trip, because I was bound to get an earful about my hidden blade. I lay down on the beds in the lower deck, and I just lay there, unable to go to sleep. After a while of just sitting there, my eyes started to close, and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up to Amina prodding me awake, and I felt like I didn't get a wink of sleep that past night, but who knows, I could always be worse. I forced my eyes open and I only got a crack of light before they sealed shut again. I kept struggling with my eyes, and I just didn't have the energy to open my eyes. Then I felt soft, icy cold fingers on my eye lids, and then they opened my eyes to the world of the living. "You know, you should probably think about getting more sleep, because I have been here for 5 minutes without a budge from you, or a stop in your snoring." Amina said this with a warming smile that could brighten the whole world if it fell into a dark age, and her beautiful brown eyes met my blue ones. I forced a tired smile, and forced my tired muscles to lift my weight up to my boots. She quirked an eye brow and said, "You look like an old man trying to get up out of a chair." Then she mimicked an old man grabbing his lower back and groaning like an old man, and even how tired I was, I had to laugh at the site.

Then I got knocked on my back, and icy cold water poured all over me, then I shouted at whoever did that, "What the hell was that for!?"

Then I heard Leandro's voice say, "Well I thought I would help you out and get you awake." Then my vision cleared to see a smiley Leandro looking at me.

"You still didn't need to do that though!" I yelled at him.

"Yeah I know, but it was very funny from our point of views, right Amina."

"Yep." Amina said.

"It wasn't funny from here!"

"Ok drop it Ezran." Machiavelli was suddenly standing at the door trying to hold his laughter in.

"Screw you Machiavelli that was uncalled for!" I shouted back at him.

"Drop it Ezran." He said to me again.

"No, I won't 'drop it' Machiavelli, because I already had that once, but I accepted that one because you're you." I retorted, but then he tackled me, and hit me with the hilt of his sword. I swung out with my fist, slugging him in the face. Then after that, I took his sword and chucked it over the deck into the water. Then we started to brawl. I blocked his hit, and swung, but he blocked mine and nailed me in the stomach, then in my leg and face. He faltered for one second after his relentless attack on me, but that was all I needed to gain the advantage on him. I slugged him in the face, making him stumble backwards, and then I started my relentless attack. I slugged him in the face again, then his stomach, face, stomach, face, crotch, and then elbowed him in the back of the head and he landed on his face. I got grabbed from behind, and then I stood face to face with the last person I wanted to see at this point, Ezio auditore. He brought his fist up, and nailed me in the face.

I opened my eyes to see Ezio, but then I saw a scowl, and saw his fist, and hit slugged me.

I opened my eyes to a different place this time, and then I saw Ezio looming over me. He brought his fist up, and was about to punch me again, but I caught it, and then I twisted his arm and broke it. He cried out in pain, and then I sprung up, and Leandro came in. I took my mace, and with the hilt, I knocked Ezio out. Leandro was walking across the room, and then I took Ezio's hidden blade, and brandished it towards Leandro's sword that was pointed at me. He lunged at me; I countered and disarmed him, then stabbed him in the arm. I ran towards the door, and I burst though it to find Amina there in front of me. I jumped over her, and I ran.

I exited the island, and sprinted towards the Borgia capitol. I ran forever it seemed like, and then I hijacked a horse, as I made my way through the long trail, about to do something that I may regret for the rest of my life, but I set a goal in my mind in that second, I will go through with it no matter what the cost.

"Assassin, over there, and he's coming swiftly towards our position! Guards, ready your weapons for battle, he looks like a tough one!" The guard turned to tell Cesare, but he was already there behind him.

"I know, but what is he doing here, he isn't going to try to take us down. He might be looking for something. I am going to go down there to find out what the hell he's doing here." Cesare said.

"Sir, you know assassins can't be trusted, you know what they are."

"Said by the pope who doesn't know how to run things around here." Then Cesare turned and left the room. Cesare made haste to get down there before the assassin got there first. He walked out the door right as the assassin came to a stop. He jumped off his horse and had this air about him, but Cesare couldn't put his finger on it, but he was here for something.

"Now tell me assassin, why are you here." There was a silence, until Cesare spoke again, "Tell me before I slit your minute throat."

"I'm here to join the ranks of the Templars, because the assassins have been, let's just say, not as pleasant as they used to be." The mysterious assassin said.

"Not as pleasant?" I asked him, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, that I hate the assassins, you have a problem with that Cesare?"

"No, I have no problem with that, but how, say you, can I trust you? Give me one _good_ reason."

"Then how about this, I show you the assassin den?"

"Now that would be quant."

"Alright then, let's ride, but you have to come alone. We don't want your guards getting trigger happy, because then, the assassins would know that I was the one that showed you. They have no idea what I'm about to do, and I'd rather keep it that way."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"I've came all the way here, across miles of land, without stopping for an instant."

"Alright, but pull any fast ones, and you'll be dead before you can say merda."

"Deal, this way Cesare."

Cesare looked at him harder and said, "What is your name assassin?"

"It's Ezran." Then he galloped off with Cesare on his tail.

They passed the canary like a blur, and finally they came to Isola Tiberia, the assassin headquarters. "There it is, L'assassino guild."

"Sì, ma dove sono gli assassini?"

"Does that answer your question Cesare?" Ezran asked, and then he saw it. The assassino's climbing the buildings, training he supposed.

"Yes it does, now let's go back to our gilda."

"Yes Cesare." They rode back out from their cover spot in the trees back to the rode and onward.

After riding a bit, Cesare got curious, and asked the lad, "So why do you want to join us, you really have no reason."

"HO un sacco di motivi a lasciare tali ass holes to rot in qui Cesare. Io li odio con tutto il mio cuore, e non può mai cambiare. Now, is that a good enough answer for you Cesare?"

"Yes it is, now that you mention it, but how do I know that I can trust you?"

"Hey, I just showed you where the assassin guild is. Also, there is only a few assassins there on Thursdays, so you could launch a full scale attack on it if you want."

"Now I know that I can trust you, because you wouldn't say that unless you were working undercover, which I trust you aren't."

"Don't worry Cesare; I will never go back to those stupido assassino."

"I trust you will think that in the end, because if you don't, you might find that we can be quite malicious." Cesare taunted Ezran.

"Don't worry about it, besides, what am I going to do, I mean, I am in the middle of your guild, I couldn't pull off something like that, and I bet even Ezio Auditore himself couldn't."

"That's a pretty big assumption for one as young as you, but I will take your proposal, welcome to the Templars Ezran."

"I will make the most of it, and kill more assassins than you could ever dream of."

"Yes, I hope so, and Ezran, if you didn't know, our motto is, may the father of understanding guide us."

"It's catchy enough, but I like it, may the father of understanding guide us."

"Good, now, let's get into a gallop."

"Right behind you Cesare." Ezran said as they rode off into the night. They arrived at Castel Sant'Angelo right on schedule,

Cesare said to Ezran, "Your room will be right next to mine, pretty much in between my fathers and mine."

"I will take that, just tell me when and I'll be killing assassins left and right for you."

"Ok, well here it is, and enjoy it before you go on some missions for me."

"Yes Cesare, and will it be tomorrow?" Ezran asked.

"Yes, tomorrow at noon, so get your rest, and I won't be attacking the assassins soon, it will be much later." Cesare said, and then he shut the door behind him as he swept out of the room.

Ezran looked at his surroundings, and saw a letto, a sedia and a scrivania, and what he needed the most a finestra. He opened the finestra, and looked out to see a pidgin. It was one of the assassin's, so it flew over, and then he taped a message on it that said, _"Ezio, I have made it to the Castel Sant'Angelo safely, and Cesare Borgia himself accepted me, after I told him the lie that we were the weakest on Thursdays, but you know that's when everyone is there. He won't be attacking soon, and I hope to learn where the apple's location is, because if I don't, things might get bad, and fast. Sincerely, the undercover assassin."_ The bird soared out the window towards Isola Tiberia, Ezran only hoping that it would make it there.

Since it was dark, and who knows what hour of the night it was, but Ezran decided to just go to sleep, trying to figure out how he would gain Cesare's complete trust, because once he had that, he might be able to get the apple, and make an escape attempt with it in his palm.

"You called Cesare?" I asked him.

"Yes, I need you to go down to the dungeon to retrieve something for me." Cesare said to me.

"What do you want me to get?" I asked him.

"I want you to get something that's wrapped in velvet cloth, it's a circle, and I need it now, so be gone." Cesare said as he pushed me out the door.

I walked through the hallways looking at the disgusting and revolting Templar emblem, but I finally did make it to the dungeons without vomiting. _"Hah, you're a funny guy Ezran." _I joked to myself. I looked around for it, but all I saw were cells to keep people in. I walked in but it was a dead end up ahead, but when I turned around, I saw a crack in the wall to the right of the door, I pushed it open, and there it was. It was in a simple knot that I could do back, so I opened it, and I saw the piece of Eden. I just stared at it in utter shock of just seeing it. I wrapped the cloth back around it and I pocketed it. _"I didn't think it would be that easy, there must be some catch to this, but I am going to try to get out of here with it." _I thought to myself. I got back up onto the ground level, and I walked towards the door to leave, but there was a person guarding it.

I walked up to him, and then he asked me, "What is your reason to leave?"

"To go kill some assassin's, Cesare sent me himself.

His blank face turned into shock, but he put it back on and said to me, "Proceed assassin, I mean Templar."

I could've almost laughed in his face; this was almost too easy, just walking out with the piece of Eden in my pocket. There must be a catch, it can't be this easy, but if it is, I will say piece of cake. I then stole on a horse and started riding back towards Isola Tiberia.

I arrived at the bridge of Isola Tiberia, when I was suddenly surrounded by a slew of guards, but Cesare wasn't one of them. _"Why isn't he with them? I just might not be worth his time to come out here to get the piece of Eden."_ Then they all attacked me.

I slid out my hidden blades; one that Ezio himself repaired, and the one that I took from him. I fluxed all of the guards that were thrown at me. Then the next wave came in, but they were a little harder, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then I almost soiled my pants, there, in front of my face, were a whole wave of fully armored guards with huge axes, swords, and lances. This was not going to end well, but then, I saw Ezio and all the other assassins sprinting towards me, and I breathed a sigh of relief on the inside, thank god it was Thursday. I looked around, and there were no more guards after these. I did the only thing I could, run. I tore towards the other assassins with the guards trying to keep up with me, and then when they were close enough, we all charged towards them. All of the giant guards just stopped, and then they all scrambled off into the distance, some even pushing others down.

All of the assassins stopped along with me and Ezio, "Back so soon Ezran, I trust you have it." Ezio said as everyone crowded around me. I put my hand in my pocket, and I pulled out the velvet cloth, and took it off. The piece of Eden shone in the afternoon shine, the apple looked amazing. Everyone awed at it, and then Ezio took it from me, and said, "This will help us, we can know where the  
Templars were even before they know where they are going to go, you did an excellent job, I'm glad I sent you on this mission." Ezio said. Everyone flocked away from me back to the island, all except two.

The first one to walk up was Amina, and she slugged me across the face, and shouted, "Don't you or Ezio ever do that again, or I will so kill you both!" Se slugged me again for good measure, and then she hugged me and said in a quieter tone, "I am glad that you're back safe though." I returned the hug.

Leandro was calmer than Amina though, as he said, "Welcome back Ezran, although you did give us both a scare, by the way, why did you do that?"

"I did that because if it took a very long time to did it, if anyone got captured they wouldn't know anything about it, except for Ezio, but then again, it's not every day that you see Ezio captured."

"Well that explains it, now let's tell you what has happened over the one day that you were gone, which was just sitting around with Amina as she was fuming and crying about it at the same time." Leandro said with a chuckle as Amina slapped him across the face.

"Hey, it's not as if I knew that he was going undercover!" She defended herself.

"I still honestly did not expect it to be that easy though, just a day and Cesare gives me his full trust, it's just stupid of him." I said to them. They both nodded their heads to, all of us wondering what the hell Cesare did that for.

_Noon time, Templar den._

"So he took the fake?"

"Yes, he left on a horse for the den, we ambushed him just like you said to."

"Is he still alive?"

"Yes, one of our spies said that the every single last civilian died at the hands of the assassins."

"So then I will assume that they don't suspect our intentions?"

"No, as far as we know, they are oblivious to us."

"Then we will ride out to the assassins, with the ¼ of our forces, and that will be enough to draw all the assassins out of their den. They don't have many numbers, so this will be a breeze to take them out, and with the bomb in the fake apple, Ezio will perish. It is set to detonate in one our right?

"Yes."

"The last part of our army is ready to launch an attack from behind when we draw the assassins out to us?"

"Yes Lord Cesare, the forces are in the front, waiting to ride out with you."

"Then let's take the assassins down once and for all, I have the apple right here, so we can go."

_5 minutes before detonation._

"This is really fascinating isn't it Ezran?" Ezio said to us. I wasn't really listening, but Amina and Leandro were listening as though it was the most important thing on the universe.

"Yeah." I said as enthusiastically as I could at the moment.

"Maybe you all should take a break." Right when the words left Ezio's mouth, I left. I walked down the familiar halls, I was glad to be back, even if I wasn't gone for barely a day. I sat on a bench in the big hallway, and was getting greeted by assassins that walked by, greeting them with the same response, "It's good to be back." Roughly 5 minutes later of just sitting there, I hear the Templar alert ring through everyone, and right after that, I hear a huge explosion. I jump to my feet, and ran towards the sound that the explosion came from. I was astonished to see that smoke was coming from Ezio's quarters, and I rushed in to see a horrific site. The piece of Eden was literally in pieces, and all 3 of them were sprawled across the floor. Amina was all bloody, and her chest was split wide open, the gore and guts running out of her like a river. Leandro was even more tattered, same thing as Amina, but on the right side of his head, you could see everything, teeth gums, his brain, with brain juices falling out in big chunks, blood caked his whole body, but the worst was Ezio. His head was blown off from his body, as it was across the room, his chest split wide open, with his internal organs sprawled in places unimaginable, stomach, heart, everything in his chest pretty much. Both arms were blown off, and so was one leg. Even his balls were blown off. I looked at this horrific site, and rage was fast growing in me. Veins in my neck, arms, and almost everywhere on my body were popping out.

I stormed out, and to people's luck, no one was in my way. I was outside and past the other assassins before they could blink, and I looked across the bridge at Cesare. "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" I raged at him. "I WILL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" I charged at Cesare, but all his forces were in front of him in a blink of an eye. No one can stop me, NOTHING can. My hidden blades were out and I cut through all of them mercilessly, their blood fueling me even more as I tore through them all. Gutting them and ripping through them all like paper. They all were at my feet, lakes of blood at my feet. I glared at Cesare, pure hate in my eyes, his eyes full of fear as he saw me tear through his forces without breaking a sweat. He feared me, every single ounce of his body shaking in fear. I heard barely through my rage the other assassins fighting, that was their plan, ambush us from the back, but obviously Cesare didn't count on this happening. "You will die." I barely whispered at Cesare, but he heard me loud and clear. He slid off his horse, and pulled out his sword, and he pushed back his fear it seemed. My stark red dripping hidden blades already out, lusting for his blood on them.

I charged at him, hidden blades and his sword flying around. We matched each other though, but I was on the attacking side, and he was getting tired, and quickly from all my hard blows on him. We danced in our battle, but Cesare couldn't hold on much longer as I hammered his sword and his arms, but then I faltered because I slipped on the blood. He took his advantage, slicing his sword into my side, and then he swung, and cut straight through my right hidden blade, the red blade dropping into the pool of blood so that you couldn't see it any more. I tried to advance, but it was easy for him to block my attacks, and soon after both my hidden blades was broken at the hands of Cesare. I kicked him away from me, and then I pulled out my Mace, and picked another off the ground. Crossing them in front of me like an X, Cesare looked at me, his fear returning. I attacked him, he just managing to block my blows. I pushed him back across the bridge, and soon we were out of the blood, and that meant he didn't have any advantage for me slipping. Back and forth my maces went, hammering down on him, I kicked him in his balls, and then swung my mace so hard at his hand I sent his sword flying off the bridge down to the water, and his hand with it.

"Mercy, mercy!" Cesare begged at me.

"Non ho alcuna pietà per lei, si muore per le vostre azioni a mie mani. Riposare in pace voi bastardo." I spat at him, and them I swung both of my maces as hard as I could at his head, crushing it between them, and then swung again with my right, making his head fly off his body, and landing somewhere in the water.

I turned to see that the other assassins had finished off the other Templar's, and then I call the assassins over, and I spoke to them, "We beat the Templar's today, but there are sure to be others tomorrow with the same intentions. We destroyed their army, but at what cost, 3 very important lives. There was sure to be other Templars out there, others to kill, but there will be losses, like the ones that we lost today. We gained the real piece of Eden today, and I will do everything in my power to stop the Templar's plans at all cost. We will do well not to mourn of the losses, but instead let them fuel us in order to stop the Templar order. So let us remember this day, for it is an important one. Let us wipe all the Templar's from the face of the world, and destroy their evil deeds once and for all." I got cheers from them all. I added to myself, 'Let this be a new era for the assassins, so that we may obliterate the Templar's, and save the world from them.'

End of 1st short story in series


End file.
